Military
Friday - January 06, 2012
Stick that in your hookah and smoke it
U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country’s sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.
The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy.
“Their presence does nothing but create mayhem, and we never wanted them to be present in the Persian Gulf,” [Iranian Admiral] Vahidi said [last week].
According to the Navy, a helicopter from the Kidd spotted a suspect pirate boat alongside the Iranian vessel. At the same time, the Kidd received a distress call from the captain of ship, the Al Molai, saying he and his crew were being held captive by pirates.
A team from the Kidd boarded the Al Molai, took 15 suspected pirates into custody and freed 13 Iranian hostages, the Navy said.
The suspected pirates, mostly Somalis, were taken to the Stennis to be held until a decision is made about prosecution, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said Friday.
Pirates hijacked the Al Molai 40 to 45 days ago, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.
A month and a half? And they’ve been right there, right off the friggin’ coast of Iran, in a sea barely 80 miles wide ever since??
The crew was “held hostage, with limited rations and we believe were forced against their will to assist the pirates with other piracy operations,” according to the statement.
The Navy reports that the Iranian boat had been pirated and used as a “mother ship” for pirate operations throughout the Persian Gulf, according to members of the Iranian vessel’s crew.
Oh sure. I think I smell something ... kinda stinks like 6 week old fish, you know? Makes me doubt the fisherman’s story a wee bit.
The Navy team provided food, water and medical care to both the suspected pirates and the crew of the Al Molai after securing the ship and ensuring everyone was safe, Schminky said.
The crew had “been though a lot,” he said. “We went out of our way to treat the fishing crew with kindness and respect,” he said.
Oh snap.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/06/2012 at 04:35 PM
Filed Under: • Iran • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Saturday - December 31, 2011
Only In Russia
Only in Russia would the outside of a submarine catch on fire. At least this one was docked. And being worked on via wooden scaffolding. No word on whether toxic fumes are being drawn inside the boat through it’s screen doors.
A number of crew members of a Russian nuclear submarine that continued to burn overnight at a drydock are reportedly trapped inside the smouldering vessel.
The Yekaterinburg, one of Russia’s largest nuclear subs, was undergoing repairs in the northern Murmansk region when the blaze broke out late on Thursday.
It quickly spread from the shipyard’s wooden scaffold to the 11,740-tonne vessel’s outer hull, with footage of the incident showing the submarine engulfed in flames.
On Friday morning, fire crews were still struggling to put out the blaze at the Arctic drydock, which is located close to the border with Norway.
It would take “a few more hours” to fully extinguish the smouldering outer rubber shell, which minimises radar tracing, according to emergency situations minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Delta IV class submarine, which was commissioned by the former Soviet Union in 1985, can carry up to 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles and is one of six in a class which form the backbone of its sea-based nuclear defences.
The Interfax news agency reported that the damage from the fire could be so extensive that the submarine would need to be scrapped.
However, deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of the nation’s military industries, said the vessel would rejoin the navy after repairs.
UPDATE: they got the fire out finally ... by dragging the sub out of the dry dock and putting it under the water. Genius solution!
MOSCOW — Firefighters extinguished a massive fire aboard a docked Russian nuclear submarine Friday as some crew members remained inside, officials said, giving assurances that there was no radiation leak and the vessel’s nuclear-tipped missiles were not on board.
Military prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether safety regulations were breached. President Dmitry Medvedev summoned top Cabinet officials to report on the situation and demanded punishment for anyone found responsible.
Daily Mail has a real good cover of the story here, with plenty of pics and sidebar info.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/31/2011 at 05:40 PM
Filed Under: • Commies • Military •
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Permalink • Friday - December 16, 2011
Have Some Leftovers
Truth be told, when I saw that headline, my first thought was the more things change, the more they stay the same. This was from WWII:
But that isn’t exactly the case here. As the last of our troops board the big planes to exit sandland, what they’re leaving behind is much more than just refuse ...
Troops are leaving a bounty of leftovers as they exit the country this month, abandoning dining-hall tables and chairs, tents, air conditioners and old vehicles. Unlike a traditional American yard sale, the military bric-a-brac is free.
...
The State Department, which inherits the lead U.S. role in Iraq on Jan. 1, also is accepting hand-me-downs, such as armored vehicles and surveillance electronics to protect its turf.“We’ve gone through a very extensive review process to determine what we need to take back to the United States, what gets reconditioned, what we can afford to transfer to the State Department, or to state and local governments back in the United States, or to the Iraqi government,” said ArmyMaj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.
“It’s really the leftover things we’ve transferred to the Iraq government.”
The command estimates that it has bequeathed to the Iraqi government more than 4 million pieces of this and that, valued at $580 million. However, the military is saving more than $1 billion in shipping costs.
It’s not all free. Iraq is going to pay for the 140 M-1 tanks we’re leaving, but we’re keeping some of the spy gear and 60 of the MRAPs (armored vehicles) are going to the State Department.
Still, it must seem like a yard sale over there. I’d say Christmas in December, but not only would that be redundant, it might offend their prickly little muslim feewings.
Let’s not forget all the schools, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure staying there too, that our troops built when they weren’t being shot at.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/16/2011 at 02:37 PM
Filed Under: • Iraq • Military •
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Permalink • Thursday - December 15, 2011
Blurring The Line
As the military scrambles to deal with a U.S. spy drone lost in Iran, it was revealed that the U.S. Air Force has bought a cutting edge, jet-powered stealth drone—and plans its immediate deployment in Afghanistan.
But the brand new drone—an armed model from General Atomics designed for strike as well as reconnaissance—was ordered months ago, well before the crash of the stealthy Lockheed-made RQ-170 Sentinel that remains in Iran, the USAF said in a statement to aviation website FlightGlobal.
“This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS,” the USAF said.
Developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Avenger—also known as the Predator C—is the upgraded successor to the Predator and Reaper drones with significantly greater firepower, speed and sensor capabilities.
It also has an internal weapons bay and is capable of carrying 2,000-pound missiles.
December 15, 2011: The U.S. Air Force recently announced that they were sending an Avenger UAV to Afghanistan. This jet powered aircraft was initially known as “Predator C” and took its first flight in early 2009. The air force has been working on buying an Avenger and getting it to Afghanistan for the last five months.
Development of the Avenger began nearly a decade ago. The first flight was supposed to have been four years ago, but there were technical problems that kept coming up. Apparently it was worth the wait, as the U.S. Navy was impressed and particularly interested in using Avenger to replace the soon-to-be-retired EA-6Bs in their most dangerous attack missions. The air force likes the ability to arm Avenger with a smart bomb, including the 900 kg (2,000 pound) GBU-34 penetrator version.
Avenger is 13.2 meters (41 feet) long, with a 20.1 meter (66 foot) wingspan and built to be stealthy. The V shaped tail and smooth lines of the swept wing aircraft will make it difficult to detect by radar. There is a humpbacked structure on top of the aircraft, for the engine air intake. There is an internal bomb bay to hold about a ton of weapons, or additional fuel to provide another two hours of flying time (in addition to the standard 20 hours endurance). Avenger appears to be a larger, jet powered version of the five ton Reaper (Predator B). The 4,800 pound thrust engine is designed to minimize the heat signature that sensors can pick up. Total payload is 1.36 tons (3,000 pounds) and total weight of the aircraft is nine tons. Cruising speed is 740 kilometers an hour [460mph]. Each Avenger costs about $15 million.
These drones keep right on growing in size, power, speed, capability, and cost. This latest one - latest that we’re being told about, at any rate - is the size of a jet fighter, flies faster than any WWII era fighter plane, and has a a considerable ordnance load. 3,000 pounds is a whole lot of Hellfire missiles - more than 2 dozen, including mounting racks and wiring. Plus it can stay up in the sky all day and all night.
Think this is big? There is another one waiting in the wings that’s several times larger. The Global Hawk looks very much like an Avenger C, but it has the wingspan of a 737-900. A “spy drone” the size of an airliner! That one can fly at 500mph at twice the altitude of a commercial jet, and go from coast to coast more than 5 times on one tank of fuel. This is not a paper daydream; the Global Hawk exists and is already flying. The thing has already flown non-stop from California to Australia; it can stay up for more than 30 hours at a time. God only knows what kind of bomb load that one could carry. Cost? 10 times more than you’ll ever earn in your entire lifetime, but what’s money to the military? The sky’s the limit, and these drones can fly really, really up there. $40 million each, plus as much in avionics gear as you can dream of; easily another $40 million per drone.
I’m starting to wonder if we even need an Air Force any longer. Or pilots. Maybe all the Blue Shirts will be replaced by legions of video game junkies sitting in darkened rooms somewhere, plugged in to their consoles and joysticks. They’ll get all the big jobs, the spooky stuff and the alpha strikes, and actual human pilots will be relegated to flying cheap little propjet planes for mop-up missions. Is this a good thing or not? I’m not really sure. Is “no risk warfare” the drone wave of the future? We’re not the only country doing drones. Everybody is, even Turkey. We will start seeing anti-drone drones soon? Mega-drones and micro-drones? Is this a whole new way for the militarys of the world to waste money, another “dreadnought race” up high in the sky?
The Avenger, unlike the larger Global Hawk, can operate from carriers. The Avenger uses landing gear from the F-5, [Vietnam era fighter plane] an aircraft of the same weight class. The naval version is now called the Sea Avenger.
The Avenger is expected to deliver about 85 percent of the performance of the Global Hawk, at less than half the price. To compete with this, there is a “Global Hawk Lite” in development. The Avenger is designed to fly high (up to 20,000 meters/60,000 feet) and cross oceans. Until 2009, the Avenger didn’t, officially, exist, and was a “black” (secret) program.
How soon before the local police have them? That’s the new, post-911 rather militarized police, mind you. Your neighborhood cops with their assault weapons, body armor, and armored vehicles. The guys portrayed on all the TV cop dramas as having instant access to all your personal data and to every security camera in the country, of which there has been an infinite proliferation thereof. The Border Patrol is using drones already, and they are probably armed ones. The answer to that How soon question is quite frightening, because the answer is “it’s already happening”, for crimes as major as 6 stolen cows. There’s a humorous YouTube video out there somewhere, showing a road with a No Speeding sign ... some car zooms by and drone pops up and blasts him. Aside from the use of excessive force, that isn’t really all that far fetched at this point.
No risk warfare is a kind of ultimate power, and we all know what happens when you give someone ultimate power. Especially if they were already pretty damn corrupt to begin with, or at least traveled in a world where such levels of corruption were very commonplace.
Have we gone too far?
Posted by Drew458
on 12/15/2011 at 12:12 PM
Filed Under: • Military •
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Permalink • Tuesday - December 13, 2011
The Greening Of The Fleet
Or should I have called this post “The Fleecing of the Green”?
At only 4 Times Regular Cost
A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel.
And gosh, you’d better sit down for this one: Solazyme, the company that got the contract, not only is the recipient of $21.8 million in Obama’s Green Stimulus deal, on the company’s board sits T.J Galuthier, Clinton’s Deputy Secretary and Chief Operations Officer of the Department of Energy from 1999 to 2001, who also served on President Obama’s White House Transition Team, where he worked on the energy provisions of the stimulus package. A triple coincidence, imagine that. The guy who wrote the green stimulus is now in charge of a company that got a big fat green stimulus handout.
[Secretary of the Navy] Mabus notes that this 450,000-gallon buy — while comparatively large for military biofuels — is still tiny compared to the amount of fuel the Navy and the commercial airline industries consume. He’s promised that as the Navy buys more fuel, economies of scale will kick in, and prices will drop. But an MIT study of alternative jet fuels, conducted in association with the Navy, found that even under optimal conditions — with dozens of refineries up and running — the price of bio jet fuel would still be twice as high as the cost of the traditionally made stuff.
Read all about it here. And here. And here.
It ain’t easy goin’ green. Especially when we have enough regular oil right here in our own country, to run the military for the next couple of centuries. And I do hope that this algae derived fuel they’re buying works a whole lot better than the recycled french fry oil bio-fuel that’s out there. That stuff tends to clog the heck of diesel injectors on tractors and bulldozers and stuff whenever it gets cold. Oops.
I gather the whole carrier group is going to use this fuel on a test trip across the Pacific. I wonder how big the Navy’s fleet of tow trucks tow ships is?
Posted by Drew458
on 12/13/2011 at 02:24 PM
Filed Under: • Military • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Monday - December 12, 2011
In the Navy
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus: another far left Obama shill.
He’s off the deep end of the dry dock with his ideas for naming ships. Bad enough that we got the John P. Murtha; now we’ve got the Cesar Chavez too. What’s next,
The responsibility for naming U.S. warships has traditionally been left to the secretary of the Navy. That needs to change. President Obama’s Navy secretary, Ray Mabus, has politicized the christening process to the point where some form of oversight is needed.
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announcement last spring that the newest supply ship in the Navy’s inventory would be named after labor leader Cesar Chavez.
...
On Mr. Mabus‘ watch, the namings have taken a decidedly political turn. In 2009, the Navy announced the naming of the USNS Medgar Evars after the civil-rights leader. Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, defended the practice as part of the Navy’s “rich tradition,” but naming ships after political activists began with the Obama administration.Mr. Mabus was also wrong to name the amphibious ship LPD-26 after the late Rep. John P. Murtha, breaking with the tradition of naming San Antonio class ships after U.S. cities.
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America and our sea services deserve better.
You’re barking up the wrong tree there Admiral. Labor leaders, turncoat soldiers, pinkos, and revolutionaries ARE the heroes that the left looks up to. They will not see your complaint as any sort of problem at all. I’m expecting a USS Senator Kerry and a USS Occupy Wall Street to soon come down the ways myself.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/12/2011 at 01:25 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Military •
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Permalink • Thursday - December 08, 2011
Old News Is New News, Again
Gee, didn’t the New Digital Media figure this out in excruciating detail more than a year and a half ago?
Yeah, and water can’t cure dehydration. Numbnuts.
Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.
During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.
Thirteen people were killed and dozens more wounded at Fort Hood in 2009, and the number of alleged plots targeting the military has grown significantly since then. Lawmakers said there have been 33 plots against the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, and 70 percent of those threats have been since mid-2009. Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who is being held for the attacks, allegedly was inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September. The two men exchanged as many as 20 emails, according to U.S. officials, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.
Pretty damn pathetic if you ask me. I think that “workplace violence” label falls under the “nice try asswipe” and “you can fool some of the people NONE of the time” categories. It wasn’t “human-caused disaster” either, or whatever the proper pansy-ass euphemism is. It was straight up terrorism executed by a jihadist who used the ninny-britches military’s kowtowing to political correctness to his advantage to work his evil. Take the bastard out and shoot him. And don’t call it anything else. Period. Next?
Posted by Drew458
on 12/08/2011 at 09:11 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Military • Politically Correct B.S. • RoPMA •
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Permalink • can it get any sillier? US Marines told not to piss in the direction of mecca. AAAaagggghhhhhh
People, honest. I’m not certain if I wanna laugh or cry. Maybe both? Or laugh till tears fall.
Now I should be honest about this and admit I haven’t checked it out fully. OK, really not at all. But since she’s quoting a Marine media source ,, ?
Look, the world is so damn crazy now, even crazier then past generations thought about themselves. It’s so nuts that now I tend toward believing the unbelievable
cos the unbelievable is now the believable.
Don’t believe that? Fine. Then read this.
Latrine directive another step on path to Islamification
By DIANA WEST
The Register-MailHAVING WRITTEN COUNTLESS COLUMNS AND BLOG POSTS arguing that the see-no-Islam counterinsurgency strategy (COIN) has led to failure in two wars in the umma (Muslim world) and the dhimmification of the U.S. military, it’s almost funny to see the debate more or less officially joined over my recent column on what appears to be simply the gross-out, PG-13 movie topic of peeing toward Mecca. Or, rather, not peeing toward Mecca.
The latter is the lesson that an Afghan Muslim contractor has been teaching Marines before they deploy to Afghanistan, in accordance with an Islamic canonical hadith called “The Prohibition of Facing the Qiblah When Relieving Oneself.” But maybe the debate had to take this excretory turn with the Pentagon awash in the phony fundamentals of Greg Mortenson’s discredited “Three Cups of Tea.”
Scatological or not, what we are talking about here is an untenable invasion of privacy of American citizens in uniform via religious dictate as taught by the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Nov. 28 print edition of Marine Corps Times carries both an article and a lead editorial on what the paper is politely calling “excretory etiquette” regarding Marines and Mecca—which, incidentally, is about 2,000 miles from Afghanistan. But this isn’t just about etiquette. Given its Islamic religious derivation, the Marines’ excretory instruction strikes me as a violation of religious freedom. Who is the U.S. Marine Corps to instruct American citizens to bring their personal hygiene practices into accord with Islamic law? The Corps in this case is acting as a vehicle of Islamic law, which comprehensively rules on all manner of personal habits, as well as on civil and legal affairs.
Needless to say, the Marine Corps doesn’t see it that way. Its spokesmen have contended narrowly that this lesson taught by a contractor (hired by the Corps) isn’t “formal Marine Corps doctrine,” as the Marine Corps Times editorial puts it. Formal or not, the editors also don’t think this Marine Shariah (Islamic law) is a bad idea. Headlined “Respect differences,” the editorial states: “Thing is, there’s value to this sort of insight.” Perhaps in the name of respecting “differences”?
Heavens, no. This is all about respecting Islam, not “differences.” After all, if it were about “differences,” the respect in question would extend to the non-Islamic belief that not all bodily functions taking place on planet Earth must key off the location of a town in Saudi Arabia. To each his own.
That’s not the editorial’s subject. The value, it says, comes “in light of the tense conditions under which both groups must coexist.”
Tense conditions—as in border firefights? Roadside bombs? No, again. The editorial refers to tensions between Muslims and infidels (BEGIN ITALS)inside the wire(END ITALS). “Consider that in the last four years,” the editorial continues, “nearly 60 coalition troops have been killed by their Afghan counterparts.”
So “respecting differences” here means pee straight or die. That’s the lesson the military wants to teach young Americans heading into the war zone—again, inside the wire. The only way it knows to increase their safety while on their own bases or when “partnering” with Afghans is to school them in the practice of Islamic law. In effect, then, collaboration with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan requires the United States of America to Islamify its infidel forces, just a little, just to keep those religious crazies in the Afghan ranks from popping off.
More guidelines for U.S. forces: “If you must pass a man praying, pass at a respectful distance. Do not walk between a man praying and Mecca—always walk behind him. ... Do not touch Qurans or prayer rugs.” To be fair to the Marines, those rules come from the Center for Army Lessons Learned. But it’s all of a Pentagon piece. And guess where such “safety” education—the dhimmi rules of Shariah—will be taught next?
I bet it would surprise the brass at the Pentagon to learn that Islam means “submission,” and that the age-old choice Islam has offered infidels is to submit or die. Still, they seem to have learned, as the editorial puts it, that “certain behavior that wouldn’t get a second look stateside could lead to problems at a patrol base in Helmand province.”
“Problems.” What a way to invoke shootings of our people by Afghan forces—the spurting, flaring jihad none dares name. “Counseling Marines to aim east ultimately may head off trouble,” the editorial concludes. Submission always does.
Posted by peiper
on 12/08/2011 at 07:17 AM
Filed Under: • Military • muslims • USA •
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Permalink • Saturday - November 26, 2011
is the russian army kissing off the new kalashnikov?
Well finally, I’m able to get to what I originally started on.
New on the ‘new’ Kalashnikov.
I am not even close in any way to the knowledgeable folks at bmews, starting with Drew, on things that go bang. I appreciate them, I’m pro gun, but haven’t the technical savvy to carry on a discussion or offer advice. However, once in awhile I find something gun related I stumble across, and think others will be as interested as I am. With that understanding I offer the following.
Kalashnikov manufacturer targets Russian army with new rifle
By Shaun Walker
The latest model of the legendary Kalashnikov rifle is due to be unveiled in December, with leaked reports in the Russian press suggesting that its key feature will be that all major functions can be performed with one arm.Other details about the rifle are sketchy. The owners of the factory in the Urals that produces the guns hope the new model will meet approval from the Russian army, which earlier this year said it would stop buying the rifles. But there are already mutterings that the military is not impressed.
The first weapon in the series was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Red Army tank commander during the Second World War, and entered mass production in 1949. Mr Kalashnikov is still alive and lives in the city of Izhevsk, where the rifles are still be produced.
A newer version, the AK-74, was introduced in the 1970s, followed by a number of updated versions. More rifles based on Mr Kalashnikov’s design have been produced than any other gun in military history and it has been copied by factories around the world.
Earlier this year, the Russian army said it would no longer order Kalashnikov rifles until the plant developed a new model. Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the General Staff, said the army already had too many of the guns stockpiled complained that the technology was out of date.
At the time, members of the designer’s family said they were not telling Mr Kalashnikov about the decision for fear of upsetting him. “It might kill him,” said one.
There may not be better news to give the weapon’s inventor. A source in the Russian General Staff told the newspaper Izvestia the new version is unlikely to impress the military. “From the models we’ve seen, there is nothing principally new there,” he said. He added that the rifle would have the same kickback, which meant it moved from side to side after the first shot, reducing accuracy.
Immediately after the announcement in September, the manufacturer Izhmash announced it was designing a brand-new, “fifth-generation” Kalashnikov, which it hoped to have ready by the end of the year. The rifle will be given to the Russian army for testing in the coming weeks. Izvestia said the new gun will have a unique feature allowing the user to flick the safety catch, pull the trigger, and even change the magazine using one arm, meaning fighters can continue to shoot even if injured.
What the weapon will look like and whether it will feature other upgrades from the AK-74 remains uncertain.
But the newspaper said the weapon would be “recognisable”.
You would think I found this article in one of our two somewhat conservative papers today. But no. I found it in, of all the unlikely places, in a lefty (by and large) liberal (not so by and large) newspaper.
Hey .... at least I’m not reading the Guardian.
Posted by peiper
on 11/26/2011 at 12:22 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Military •
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Permalink • Sunday - October 30, 2011
Now, way over here in this corner, we have …
The first Navy airship commissioned in 50 years had its public presentation Wednesday inside Hangar 1 in Lakehurst, the scene of so much history in lighter-than-air flight — and a center for its potential renaissance.
The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors, and won’t be deployed outside the United States. But it’s very significant as a return to an older technology, and there have been two years of testing “to prove LTA (lighter-than-air) has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold, the commanding officer of Scientific Development Squadron One.
The airship is a modified A-170 built by the American Blimp Corp., capable of flying at up to 10,000 feet and cruising at around 50 mph. The Navy began the project in 2006 “to use it as a flying laboratory. The airship is a good platform because it’s very stable, and easy to take things on and off,” Huett said. “A lot of times you want to go slow.”
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“Airships bring affordability to the game. You can operate an airship for 40 percent of the cost of fixed-wing or helicopters,” said Huett
After 47 years, the U.S. Navy effectively terminated Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) operations, August 31, 1962, with the final flight of a ZPG-2 airship at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. Emblazoned with red, white and blue stripes on her rudders acknowledging the Navy’s Centennial of Flight and earliest days of Navy airship operations, the MZ-3A boasts a proud heritage and now serves as the only manned airship in the United States Navy’s inventory.
Built by American Blimp Corporation, the MZ-3A is propeller-driven by two 180 horsepower Lycoming engines producing a top speed just under 50 knots with an operational payload capability of up to 2,500 pounds.
The manned 178-foot LTA craft can remain aloft and nearly stationary for more than twelve hours, performing various missions in support of technology development for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) concepts.
“Airships offer extreme utility in C4ISR roles and patrol missions where persistent stare and reliable communications are often more important than speed,” said Bert Race, MZ-3A Government Flight Representative and Project Manager. “Our MZ-3A has proven that an airship is a very effective platform for mission system research and development.”
The MZ-3A is government-owned and contractor-operated. The contractor, Integrated Systems Solutions, Inc., employs highly qualified commercial blimp pilots whom the Navy has approved to command the airship.
Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1), stationed at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md., is the U.S. Navy’s sole Science & Technology research squadron. Commissioned, December 2004, VXS-1 employs NP-3D Orions, RC-12 Guardrails, Scan Eagle UAS, and most recently, the MZ-3A in its support of NRL-priority airborne research efforts. Since its transfer to VXS-1 in 2009, the MZ-3A has accumulated more than 1,000 mishap-free flight hours in support of the Naval Research Enterprise and recently provided assistance during the tragic Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill in 2010.
The A-170 is the largest blimp model built by ABC. The next generation of Goodyear blimps will be rigid internal framed airships; “real" Zeppelins, built in cooperation with the Zeppelin company. Their first one, an NT model, is due in 2013, and will be half again as long as this Navy blimp, with double the gas volume. Even so, the Navy’s MZ-3A and all the airships Goodyear owns, including the 3 new ones they’re building, could fit with ease inside Hanger One, a building so large that it is said to have it’s own weather inside.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/30/2011 at 12:29 PM
Filed Under: • Military • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 18, 2011
Unusual News
The leg bone of highly controversial Civil War Union General Daniel Sickles is on the move again. Sickles, a very self-aggrandizing fellow, is remembered as either the savior of the battle of Gettysburg or it’s idiot, depending on your view of history.
When the battle happened, the entire Union army wound up closely packed together on a low ridge line above the small southern Pennsylvania town. The Confederate forces, the army of Virginia, had been marauding in territory to the north, while the Union forces, the army of the Potomac, were close to Washington DC. The rebs had turned south and by chance met the yankees coming north just outside the town. As the fighting progressed, the blue forces were pushed back up onto the ridge and nearly surrounded. Sickles “misunderstood” his orders and marched his troops out from the southern part of the line to meet a Confederate advance from the west. Had that advance succeeded, not only would the blue army have been surrounded, but the way would have been open to Washington DC and in all probability the South would have won the war. Sickles’ troops met the onslaught and engaged in some of the most intense fighting of the war, with thousands of casualties on both sides, but he stopped them. During the fight his leg was shot off by a cannonball. The battle continued the next day with the advance now known as Pickett’s charge. The southern forces came within inches of breaking the northern line and taking the hill, but they were repulsed and the battle was lost. This was the turning point of the war, and from that day until the end the south was on the defensive.
Sickles survived. Somehow his leg bone was kept, and for years afterwards he would visit it from time to time.
Over time, the leg became part of a morbid collection of military artifacts, including the bullet that killed President Lincoln, the part of President Garfield’s spine where he was shot, and a huge collection of bones and pickled flesh from other casualties. It became a museum of medicine. Now that collection is being moved again. Since the collection began in the 1860’s it has moved 10 times. Sickles’ leg just won’t stop marching on.
The bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln is mounted under glass, like a diamond in a snow globe, in its new home at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The lead ball and several skull fragments from the 16th president are in a tall, antique case overlooking a Civil War exhibit in a museum gallery in Silver Spring, just off the Capital Beltway. The military museum, known for its collection of morbid oddities, moved in September from the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
At Walter Reed, visitors had to pass through a security gate and find the museum on the campus, where parking could be a problem. The new building stands outside the gates of Fort Detrick’s Forest Glen Annex.
Visitors can just drive up, walk in and come face-to-face with a perpetually grinning skeleton directing them to an exhibit on the human body. There, one can see a hairball from the stomach of a 12-year-old girl and the amputated leg of a man with elephantiasis — a disease that causes limbs to become bloated. The leg floats upright in a glass jar like an enormous, pickled sausage.
Deputy Director Tim Clarke Jr. said the museum will close in January and reopen by May 21 with its largest-ever display of objects to mark its 150th anniversary. The scope of the exhibits is still being decided, he said.
“We are sure, though, that we are programming and planning an exhibit that will astound our visitors,” Clarke said.
The $12 million relocation established a permanent home for an institution that has had 10 addresses since 1862. That’s when Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect “specimens of morbid anatomy” for study at the newly founded museum along with projectiles and foreign bodies. A photograph nearly covering one wall of the museum’s new Civil War exhibit shows amputated legs stacked like firewood.
The exhibit also includes the shattered bones of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles’ lower right leg, mounted for display beside a 12-pound cannonball like the one that hit him during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. Most of the museum’s objects, including 2,000 microscopes and hundreds of thousands of human brain specimens, are in an off-site warehouse.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/18/2011 at 08:05 AM
Filed Under: • Military • News-Briefs •
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 11, 2011
Oh Right, This Will Help
DOD Announces New Defense Policy Board Members
Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta today announced the following new members to the Defense Policy Board: Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state; Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general; Jane Harman, former U.S. congresswoman; Retired Gen. James Cartwright, former vice chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations.
These members join the following returning members: John Hamre, chairman; Harold Brown; J.D. Crouch; Richard Danzig; Rudy deLeon, Chuck Hagel; Retired Gen. Jack Keane; Henry Kissinger; Frank Miller; John Nagl; Sam Nunn; Joseph Nye; William Perry; James Schlesinger; Brent Scowcroft; Sarah Sewall; and Retired Gen. Larry Welch.
The Defense Policy Board provides the secretary, deputy secretary and under secretary for policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning matters of defense policy.
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=14841
Posted by Drew458
on 10/11/2011 at 11:29 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Military •
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Permalink • Thursday - October 06, 2011
Not What I Was Expecting
Crew from the Coast Guard cutter Munro seized the Bangun Perkasa, which was not operating under a national flag, 2,600 miles off Alaska in September after it was suspected of engaging in fishing with drift nets on the high seas, according to the Coast Guard. Drift net fishing is illegal because the nets indiscriminately kill massive amounts of fish and other marine life such as endangered whales and turtles.
The vessel was found to have been using 10 miles of drift nets and had 22 tons of squid and 30 shark carcasses aboard, the Coast Guard said. The fishing boat and its crew of 22 were towed to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands.
And that’s when the Coast Guard found evidence of rats on board.
Ships with rats aboard are not allowed into Alaska ports, so the Bangun Perkasa sits at anchor three miles out of Dutch Harbor. Its crew is in custody ashore.
But the rats are still aboard, and Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska says they should be dispatched to the deep along with the ship and its drift nets.
“It would send an unambiguous signal that pirate fishing is unacceptable to the United States and will not be tolerated. It will prevent this rust bucket from ending up back on the market where it most likely would only fall into the hands of some other pirate,” Begich said in a statement.
Shelling the vessel would also give the Coast Guard a chance to show off its newest ships, the National Security Cutters, the senator said.
“In addition to solving the rat problem, using the Bangun Perkasa for gunnery practice could demonstrate the advanced firepower of the Coast Guard’s new National Security Cutters,” Begich said in his statement.
USCGC Munro (WHEC-724) has been patrolling the seas for 40 years now. The 378 foot long ship took part in the 2004 Indonesian tsunami relief effort, was part of the KAL-007 airliner salvage operation, and any number of drug interdictions, sea rescues including the MV Alaskan Ranger affair, and deep water patrols in between. She presently calls Kodiak Alaska her home port. A Coast Guard cutter is about 3/5 the size of a Navy destroyer; as military ships go, it’s fairly small. The Munro is one of the CG’s Hamilton class cutters. From what I can gather, the ship was built with a single 5” gun as her main armament. This has since been replaced with a rapid fire 3” gun. The new generation of Coast Guard cutters, called National Security Cutters, are 40 feet longer, built with the latest and greatest systems, but their “big gun” is a single 57mm (2 1/4"). There just isn’t much call for cannons at sea anymore. So when Senator Begich (D-AK) called for the new NSC ships to use the pirate fishing boat as gunnery practice, he might have given them quite a challenge. Let’s just hope that they do it far at sea, because rats can swim for quite a distance.
Not being an artilleryman myself, I’m only guessing here, but I’d bet that it would only take about 3 or 4 hits from a 5” gun to do the job, and about 15 hits from a 76mm gun. It might be an all day affair trying to sink a fair sized ship with a 57mm, which throws a shell weighing less than a quarter what the 5” gun threw. The new generation of National Security ships also have a sea range 2,000 miles less than the old ships. But they have a helo pad and you can launch little rubber boats out the back of them! Such is progress.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/06/2011 at 11:07 AM
Filed Under: • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 23, 2011
BRIT MARINES DEFEATED IN BATTLE AGAINST HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES. SAY WHAT?
The weather has turned foul, again, putting a hold, again, on my work outside which is desperately needed after a year or more of neglect. So I’ve been trying to play catch up before we enter fall and winter. Even some inside work depends on better weather then we have at the moment.
Well, since I was up early anyway and craving coffee to get my circulation going, I took the papers in from the porch and turned the pages of one paper to see what headlines were screaming read me first, while the coffee water came to a boil.
And oh boy. Did I find a headline. I have not read past page nine as yet, because this bit of idiotic, loony tune , politically correct health and safety stopped me in my tracks. I could have saved time and got the water boiling if I’d held the cup and read the article at the same time.
This is a military demonstration, a re-enactment of an event. But it must pass health and safety rules for this very cocooned generational group of jobs worth pin heads.
If there is one, I think even God may have deserted them and decided that since they have free will and their will is to self destruct, well then so be it.
They’re DOOMED!
Health and safety defeats Marines who tackled Somali pirates
Marines who have defeated Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean were sent for “training” by health and safety officials before being allowed to re-enact their encounters at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.By Auslan Cramb
The TelegraphMembers of HMS Montrose’s counter-piracy team board hijacked ships using a technique called “fast roping” in which they slide down ropes without harnesses and with their hands protected by asbestos gloves. The men planned to display the technique at the event and were astonished to be told they would have to undertake training with an industrial rope-access firm.
They were also not allowed to simulate shooting pirates, who would instead have to give themselves up as part of a re-enactment of last year’s successful Ocean Shield operation. The Marines were sent to a council facility in Edinburgh before health and safety officials at the local authority and the Historic Scotland agency approved the display.
They were shown how to abseil to the standards expected in an industrial environment and have not been allowed to “fast rope” in the show, which is performed every evening in August.
A senior military source said: “Historic Scotland thought everything looked far too dangerous and the Marines were told to tone everything down. That included abseiling down the walls of the castle and the re-enactment of the fast roping on to the ‘captured’ ship.
“The Marines were also not permitted to shoot the pirates. Instead all the bad guys surrender. It is all a bit sad really.”
Donald Bisset, a rope access expert at Web Rigging in Edinburgh, added: “They are trained in fast-roping, that is how they get on to the decks of ships that have been taken over by pirates.
“I don’t think the council was very happy with that from a health and safety point of view so they were told they had to abseil. Someone at the council put them in touch with us.
“We just set up the ropes for them and were on hand to make sure they were doing it safely.”
One member of the audience was not impressed. “I thought the re-enactment of taking over the pirate ship looked like something you would expect to see in a children’s pantomime,” said Ross McNeill, from Glasgow, who took his father, Bill. “I certainly don’t think it would put off real-life pirates, it would just encourage them.“My dad felt it had all been a bit emasculated by health and safety concerns. I remember going when I was younger and there were motorbike riders on see saws and a stunt where they took a gun apart, hoisted it over a wall and then reassembled it and fired it. That is the sort of thing you remember.”
Alan Smith, a spokesman for the tattoo, denied that health and safety concerns had adversely affected the counter-piracy boarding unit’s display, adding: “It is a matter of opinion whether there is a stunt or not. There are health and safety concerns with everything we do but nothing so far that has stopped us in our tracks.”
Lesley Brown, of Historic Scotland, which is responsible for Edinburgh Castle, said all the procedures in the show had to be checked against health and safety standards and “risk assessed for impact to the castle.”
Posted by peiper
on 08/23/2011 at 02:26 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Military • Nanny State • Stoopid-People •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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